Aperture card feed



Nov. 16, 1965 Filed May 25, 1965 A. J. BOYCE APERTURE CARD FEED 5 Sheets-Sheet l FIG. i

ATTORNEY Nov. 16, 1965 A. J. BoYcE APERTURE CARD FEED 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 25, 1963 FIGA Nov. 16, 1965 A. J. BoYcE APERTURE CARD FEED 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed May 23, 1963 United States Patent 3,218,063 APERTURE CARD FEED Albert J. Boyce, Philadelphia, Pa., assigner to international Business Machines Corporation, New York, N .Y., a corporation of New York Filed May 23, 1963, Ser. No. 282,721 3 Claims. (Cl. 271-44) The present invention relates generally to document feeding devices and it has reference in particular to devices for feeding aperture cards and the like.

Generally stated, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved feed for record cards, particularly cards of the aperture type having a film insert.

More specifically it is an object of this invention to provide for feeding aperture cards having a film insert and for minimizing marking of the film insert.

Another object of the present invention is to provide for furnishing aperture cards one at a time from a stack of cards in a hopper or magazine to a cyclically operated feed knife so as to prevent scratching the lm insert during feeding.

It is an important object of this invention to provide for supporting a stack of aperture cards in a hopper above the bottom thereof and dropping cards from the bottom of the sack one at a time in the path of a feed knife while the feed knife is retracted at least beyond the position of the aperture, so that the film inserts of the cards are not scratched during feeding of the cards either by other cards in the stack or by the feed knife.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide for feeding aperture cards having a film insert which is bowed beyond the confines of the card thickness, by feeding them endwise one at a time while the cards are supported only at the ends, so as to drop them in position for feeding by a main feed knife moving crosswise of the cards.

Still another object of this invention is to provide for operating an auxiliary feed knife endwise of a stack of elongated aperture cards, and in timed relation to movement of a main feed knife crosswise of the stack, so that the auxiliary knife feeds the cards one at a time to the main feed knife while the main feed knife is moving towards the retracted position, whence they may be fed without interference from the other cards in the stack.

Yet another important object of this invention is to provide in an aperture record card feed for supporting a plurality of cards in a hopper on a support at one end thereof above a main feed knife, and for operating an auxiliary feed knife for releasing the cards from the support one at a time while the main feed knife is being withdrawn from its operating position, so as to minimize interference between cards during feeding by the main knife, and prevent scratching of one card or another while either card is being fed by the main feed knife.

In practicing the invention in a preferred form, a ledge or support is provided at one end of a card hopper for supporting a stack of film insert type aperture cards above the bottom of the hopper and clear of a main feed knife mechanism which operates transversely of the hopper from a retracted position to a forward travel position to feed cards from the bottom of the hopper one at a time. A recess is provided at the other end and adjacent the bottom of the hopper to receive the end of one card at a time and permit one card at a time to be removed endwise from the support by an auxiliary feed knife. The auxiliary feed knife is activated after the main feed knife has completed its forward travel and is returning to its retracted position, so that when the card falls, the main feed knife is already clear of the aperture, When the main feed knife is actuated forward to push the card out of the hopper toward the usual feed 3,2l863 Patented Nov. 16, 1965 ICC rolls, it is in a position to be moved clear and free of the stack of cards above it on the support ledge. Accordingly, the film in the aperture is unmarked by the usual interference with and rubbing against the stack of cards above it, even if the film insert is bowed so as to extend beyond the confines of the card thickness.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the more following particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. l is a right hand elevational view of a record card machine such as a sorter, partly in section, and broken away in part and with some parts shown in phantom so as to show more clearly details of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view along the line 2 2 of FIG. l, with parts of the operating mechanism shown in phantom.

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view, broken out in parts to show details of the invention more clearly and FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial cross sectional view of an aperture card such as being fed in the apparatus of FIGS. l through 3.

Referring generally to FIGS. 1 through 3, the numeral 10 designates generally the hopper or card magazine of a record card feeding machine such as a sorter, defined by a bottom plate or frame portion 12, side plates 14 and 16, a front plate 18, and rear guide posts 19 and 20. At the lower central portion of the front plate there is mounted a throat knife 22 against which cards 24 stacked in the hopper are urged, to prevent passage of more than one card at a time through a throat passage 26 delined between the throat knife 22 and a throat roller 28 rotatably supported in supporting means 30 so that the cards 24 may be advanced one at a time to be engaged by continuously operating feed rolls 32 and 34 to feed one card at a time between upper and lower card guides 36 and 38.

The cards 24 are fed one at a time from the hopper 10 by means of picker or feed knives 40 which are supported by means of knife blocks 41 adjustably secured to slides 42 slidably disposed in guides 44 in recesses in the bed plate 12. As shown particularly in FIGS. 2 and 3, the slides 42 are actuated by a feed lever 46 pivotally mounted at 47 on the frame and having a slotted engagement with a pin 48 in the slide 42. The feed lever 46 is operated to move the feed knives 40 back and forth by means of a crank 50 mounted on a crank shaft 52 and connected to the feed lever by means of a connecting link 54. The shaft 52 is driven by means of a Worm gear 56 and a driving with a worm 58 on a main drive shaft 59 driven by means of a motor (not shown).

-In order to provide for feeding cards such as aperture cards 24 at a time to be engaged by the feed knives 40, support means such as a support ledge 60 may be provided along the lower edge of the right hand side plate 14 so as to support the stack of cards 24 above the path Of the main feed knives 40. A recess 62 having a width of less than the thickness of two cards is .provided in the left hand side plate 16 adjacent the bed plate 12 in conjunction with an elevated guide 63 which aligns the end of the card with -the recess, for receiving the end portion of only the lowermost card in the stack so to enable it to be moved slightly to the left and pushed oif the support ledge 60 to position it for feeding by the main feed knives 40. This is accomplished by an auxiliary feed or picker knife 64, which is positioned in an opening provided in the right hand side plate 14 adjacent the bed plate 12 and is located more or less in the middle of the right hand side of hopper 10. As shown, the auxiliary picker or feed knife 64 comprises 3 an L-shaped angle member, the upper edge of which extends approximately one card thickness above the upper edge of the support ledge 6ft so as to engage only a single card at a time. The auxiliary feed knife 6ft may be mounted by means of a screw 64a on a support arm 66 which passes through an opening 67 in the bottom plate and is connected to a support block 68 which is threadably mounted on a push rod 7d. The push rod 7i) is slidably mounted in a bushing 72 disposed in the depending wall portion 74 of the frame l2, whence it may be actuated toward the left in FIG. l by means of a cam member 75 suitably mounted on the face of the worm gear 56. The push rod 7i? is slidably disposed in the bushing 72 and is biased to the right towards the worm gear 56 by means of a spring '76 which is positioned on the rod 7f3 between the support block 63 and an angle bracket 78 secured to a depending or flange portion Sli of the frame l2 by means of screws S2.

Referring to FG. 4 it will be seen that an aperture card 24 is provided with an opening 84 wherein a portion of film $7 having a layer of emulsion do or the like is secured by means of a mounting sheet 88 overlapping the edges of the film and attached to the edge of the film and to the card surrounding the opening 34. As shown in FIG. 4, the film S6 frequently tends to bow upwardly so as to extend beyond the thickness of the card 2d. This means that when a plurality of cards are stacked one upon the other, the film 86 of one card will nest within the opening 84 of the card above, so that if the bottom card is fed off a dat surface with a stack of cards positioned above it, there may be serious interference between the film of one card and the card above, which could result in scratching the film.

In operation, a stack of cards 2d are placed in the hopper lil with a card weight 25 to hold them down, and as shown in FiGS. l and 2 the cards in the stack are supported only at the ends by the ledge 6d and the guide 63, so as to be clear and above the path of the main picker knives 4t?, while a card which has previously been removed from the ledge et? occupies a position resting on the throat roller 28 and the knife block portion 4i of the knife riti, ready to be fed by forward motion of the feed knives ed through the throat space 26 to be engaged by the feed rolls 32 and 34.

The cam portion 75 on the worm gear 56 is so disposed that not until the feed knives have been actuated to their most advanced feeding position by the feed lever d6 through rotation of the shaft 52, and after they have started to return to their retracted position in which they are shown, does the cam portion 75 engage the push rod 70. When this happens, the push rod 7l) is moved to the left and as shown in FIG. 1, the auxiliary feed knife 64 engages the right hand edge of the lowermost card on the support ledge 6i) so as to move it slightly to the left so that the left hand end enters the recess 62 and the right hand end may be removed from the ledge 60. Both prior to and during this operation the lowermost card 24 is supported only by the ledge 6@ and the guide 63, so that there is substantially nothing holding the lowermost card 24 against the one above it intermediate the ends. Thus any possible interfering action between the aperture film of the lowermost card and the edges of the opening in the card above is minimized, since the lowermost card is substantially free to deiiect downwards in the region of the aperture. As the auxiliary picker knife 64 moves further to the left, the left hand portion of the lowermost card moves into the recess 62 permitting the right hand edge to drop off the support 60. The lowermost card is then in a position to be engaged by the main feed knives dil which, by the time the lowermost card is dropped, will be retracted beyond the region of the aperture so that no damage can occur to the film through movement of the main feed knives. As soon as the cam '75 passes the end of the push rod '70, the spring 76 biases the push rod to return to its retracted position, moving the auxiliary picker knife 64 back to its retracted position whence it is ready to engage the next lowermost card resting on the support 69. By this time the main feed knives di) have reached their retracted position and commence to move forward for Ithe next feed stroke so as to feed the card just removed from the support 60 to the main feed rolls 32 and 3d for feeding in the usual manner.

From the above it can be seen that when feeding cards having an aperture with a film which in many instances may be bowed, the features of the present invention permit successful feeding of such cards with little or no interference between the aperture films and the cards above, thereby minimizing if not entirely reducing scratching of the film to a negligible value. By utilizing the invention, aperture cards which it was practically impossible to feed in the machines as a prior art without serious scratching, may be readily fed with little or no scratching at all.

While the invention has been particularly shown and lescribed with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art `that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

i. In a card feed for consecutively feeding stacked aperture cards edgewise from the bottom of a stack in a hopper in a predetermined direction to a single card throat in a wall of said hopper;

(a) a main feed knife means positioned to move back and forth out of and into the hopper in said direction to a retracted position from which it advances to engage an edge of and feed a single card from the bottom portion of said hopper into said throat,

(b) a support at one end of the hopper for supporting the cards at said end to maintain them above said main feed knife means during its back movement,

(c) auxiliary feed knife means movable into said hopper transversely of said predetermined direction from a retracted position at said support end to engage an end of and move said card bodily endwise to remove a single card from said support,

(d) a recess at the other end of the hopper to receive the end portion of a single card removed from the support,

(e) feed means for said main feed knife means including a main feed knife drive shaft and operating arm means for cyclically moving the main knife means back and forth, and

(f) drive means for the auxiliary feed knife means operated cyclically from said drive shaft to move a card bodily from the support means while the main feed knife means moves back and approaches its retracted position.

2. In a card feed for feeding stacked aperture cards consecutively in one direction from the bottom portion of a hopper into a single card throat opening through a wall thereof;

(a) a main feed knife slidably supported on said bottom portion for movement back and forth along a path in said one direction to a retracted position and therefrom to engage the edge of and remove a single card from the bottom portion of the hopper to feed said single card into said throat,

(b) stationary support means providing a fixed ledge at one end of the hopper to support one end of a stack of cards to keep the cards above the path of the main feed knife during said back movement and unsupported between their ends,

(c) a recess at the other end of the hopper to receive the other end of a card as said one end is removed from said support means,

(d) auxiliary feed knife means at said one end movable from a retracted position transversely of the path of the main feed knife to engage and move a single card bodily endwise to remove a single card from said support means while the card is unsupported between the ends to permit it to fall to the bottom portion of the hopper While clear of the main knife,

(e) drive means for operating the main feed knife to and from the retracted position including a main drive shaft, and

(f) drive means for the auxiliary feed knife means including cam means operated by the main drive shaft operable to `actuate the auxiliary feed knife means to remove a card from the support means only after the main feed knife has started moving toward the retracted position.

3. In a card feed for consecutively advancing to a single card throat stacked aperture cards having a piece of ilm secured over one side of an aperture from the bottom portion of a hopper having a bottom, opposite end Walls and opposite sides with a single card throat opening in one side,

(a) a main feed knife reciprocably movable in a path across the hopper from a retracted position at the other side of the hopper and having a portion for engaging an edge of a single card on the bottom portion of the hopper to advance said card edgewise toward the throat opening in said one side,

(b) a relatively narrow stationary support ledge at one end of the hopper to support said one end of the stack of cards and maintain the bottom card above the path of the main feed knife,

(c) a recess in the wall at the other end of the hopper adjacent the bottom to receive the other end of a 6 single card Whose one end is removed endwise from said support ledge,

(d) an auxiliary feed knife disposed in a retracted position at the support ledge end of the hopper and movable toward the other end to engage the one end of and remove a single card from the bottom of the stack bodily endwise from the ledge,

(e) drive means for the main feed knife including a main shaft having a gear thereon,

(f) operating means for the auxiliary feed knife ineluding a push rod operatively connected to the auxiliary feed knife, and having spring means biasing the rod to bias the auxiliary feed knife to the retracted position, and

Y (g) cam means on the main shaft gear disposed to cyclically engage said push rod means to move the auxiliary feed knife to remove a card from the support ledge for feeding by the main knife While the main feed knife approaches the retracted position so that the card falls into the path of the main feed knife before it is engaged by said knife.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,242,520 10/ 1917 Comeron 271-44 2,603,253 7/1952 Leash 271-44 2,735,678 2/1956 McKay 27l-10 2,789,481 4/1957 Palmer 271-44 X 2,812,939 11/1957 Harred 271--44 ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A CARD FEED FOR CONSECUTIVELY FEEDING STACKED APERTURE CARDS EDGEWISE FROM THE BOTTOM OF A STACK IN A HOPPER IN A PREDETERMINED DIRECTION TO A SINGLE CARD THROAT IN A WALL OF SAID HOPPER; (A) A MAIN FEED KNIFE MEANS POSITIONED TO MOVE BACK AND FORTH OUT OF AND INTO THE HOPPER IN SAID DIRECTION TO A RETRACTED POSITION FROM WHICH IT ADVANCES TO ENGAGE AN EDGE OF AND FEED A SINGLE CARD FROM THE BOTTOM PORTION OF SAID HOPPER INTO SAID THROAT, (B) A SUPPORT AT ONE END OF THE HOPPER FOR SUPPORTING THE CARDS AT SAID END TO MAINTAIN THEM ABOVE SAID MAIN FEED KNIFE MEANS DURING ITS BACK MOVEMENT, (C) AUXILIARY FEED KNIFE MEANS MOVABLE INTO SAID HOPPER TRANSVERSELY OF SAID PREDETERMINED DIRECTION FROM A RETRACTED POSITION AT SAID SUPPORT END TO ENGAGE AN END OF AND MOVE SAID CARD BODILY ENDWISE TO REMOVE A SINGLE CARD FROM SAID SUPPORT, (D) A RECESS AT THE OTHER END OF THE HOPPER TO RECEIVE THE END PORTION OF A SINGLE CARD REMOVED FROM THE SUPPORT, (E) FEED MEANS FOR SAID MAIN FEED KNIFE MEANS INCLUDING A MAIN FEED KNIFE DRIVE SHAFT AND OPERATING ARM MEANS FOR CYCLICALLY MOVING THE MAIN KNIFE MEANS BACK AND FORTH, AND (F) DRIVE MEANS FOR THE AUXILIARY FEED KNIFE MEANS OPERATED CYCLICALLY FROM SAID DRIVE SHAFT TO MOVE A CARD BODILY FROM THE SUPPORT MEANS WHILE THE MAIN FEED KNIFE MEANS MOVES BACK AND APPROACHES ITS RETRACTED POSITION. 